Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences

Effects of a specific factor on fear extinction or exposure therapy have revealed promising results, for example how sex or stress hormones exert the capability to critically change extinction learning and consolidation processes. However, we must acknowledge that in real life these factors do not operate in isolation, they go hand in hand. In this chapter, the available evidence regarding interactions of sex and stress hormones on extinction processes and exposure therapy will be integrated and discussed. First hints exist that these factors in combination critically target extinction learning and consolidation processes, calling for more detailed research on the exact underlying mechanisms...

Extinguishing fear and defensive responses to environmental threats when they are no longer warranted is a critical learning ability that can promote healthy self-regulation and, ultimately, reduce susceptibility to or maintenance of affective-, trauma-, stressor-,and anxiety-related disorders. Neuroimaging tools provide an important means to uncover the neural mechanisms of effective extinction learning that, in turn, can abate the return of fear. Here I review the promises and pitfalls of functional neuroimaging as a method to investigate fear extinction circuitry in the healthy human brain...

This chapter will provide a review of research into human cognition through the lens of VR-based paradigms for studying memory. Emphasis is placed on why VR increases the ecological validity of memory research and the implications of such enhancements.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be defined by a compulsion to seek and take alcohol, the loss of control in limiting intake, and the emergence of a negative emotional state when access to alcohol is prevented. Alcohol use disorder impacts multiple motivational mechanisms and can be conceptualized as a disorder that includes a progression from impulsivity (positive reinforcement) to compulsivity (negative reinforcement). Compulsive drug seeking that is associated with AUD can be derived from multiple neuroadaptations, but the thesis argued herein is that a key component involves the construct of negative reinforcement...

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in neuroscientific research to increase ecological validity without sacrificing experimental control, to provide a richer visual and multisensory experience, and to foster immersion and presence in study participants, which leads to increased motivation and affective experience. But the use of VR, particularly when coupled with neuroimaging or neurostimulation techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), also yields some challenges...

The proliferation and refinement of affordable virtual reality (VR) technologies and wearable sensors have opened new frontiers in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This chapter offers a broad overview of VR for anyone interested in leveraging it as a research tool. In the first section, it examines the fundamental functionalities of VR and outlines important considerations that inform the development of immersive content that stimulates the senses. In the second section, the focus of the discussion shifts to the implementation of VR in the context of the neuroscience lab...

In the past two decades, a variety of cognitive training interventions have been developed to help people overcome their addictive behaviors. Conceptually, it is important to distinguish between programs in which reactions to addiction-relevant cues are trained (varieties of cognitive bias modification, CBM) and programs in which general abilities are trained such as working memory or mindfulness. CBM was first developed to study the hypothesized causal role in mental disorders: by directly manipulating the bias, it was investigated to what extent this influenced disorder-relevant behavior...

Studies presented in this chapter show that: (1) in the brain, ethanol is metabolized by catalase to acetaldehyde, which condenses with dopamine forming salsolinol; (2) acetaldehyde-derived salsolinol increases the release of dopamine mediating, via opioid receptors, the reinforcing effects of ethanol during the acquisition of ethanol consumption, while (3) brain acetaldehyde does not influence the maintenance of chronic ethanol intake, it is suggested that a learned cue-induced hyperglutamatergic system takes precedence over the dopaminergic system...

Virtual Reality (VR) is a growing field in psychological research and therapy. While there is strong evidence for the efficacy of exposure therapy in VR (VRET) to treat anxiety disorders, new opportunities for using VR to treat mental health disorders are emerging. In this chapter, we first describe the value of VRET for the treatment of several anxiety disorders. Next, we introduce some recent developments in research using VR investigating schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental disorders, and eating disorders...

Virtual Reality (VR) affords clinicians the ability to deliver safe, controlled, task-specific customised interventions that are enjoyable, motivating and engaging. Elements of training in VR comply with principles of learning implicated in new skill acquisition and re-learning skills post-neurological disorders. However, heterogeneity in the description of VR systems and the description and control of 'active' ingredients of interventions (like dosage, type of feedback, task specificity, etc.) have led to inconsistency in the synthesis and interpretation of evidence related to the effectiveness of VR-based interventions, particularly in post-stroke and Parkinson's Disease (PD) rehabilitation...

Empirical research has explored the potential of the emotion of awe to shape creativity, while theoretical work has sought to understand the link between this emotion and transformation in terms of imagining new possible worlds. This branch of study relies on the transformative potential of virtual reality (VR) to examine and invite cognitive and emotional components of transformative experiences (TEs) within the interdisciplinary model of Transformative Experience Design (TED) and the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF)...

Ethanol (EtOH) has effects on numerous cellular molecular targets, and alterations in synaptic function are prominent among these effects. Acute exposure to EtOH activates or inhibits the function of proteins involved in synaptic transmission, while chronic exposure often produces opposing and/or compensatory/homeostatic effects on the expression, localization, and function of these proteins. Interactions between different neurotransmitters (e.g., neuropeptide effects on release of small molecule transmitters) can also influence both acute and chronic EtOH actions...

Virtual reality (VR) allows us to create visual stimuli that are both immersive and reactive. VR provides many new opportunities in vision science. In particular, it allows us to present wide field-of-view, immersive visual stimuli; for observers to actively explore the environments that we create; and for us to understand how visual information is used in the control of behaviour. In contrast with traditional psychophysical experiments, VR provides much greater flexibility in creating environments and tasks that are more closely aligned with our everyday experience...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by loss of control over intake and drinking despite harmful consequences. At a molecular level, AUD is associated with long-term neuroadaptations in key brain regions that are involved in reward processing and decision-making. Over the last decades, a great effort has been made to understand the neurobiological basis underlying AUD. Epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as an important mechanism in the regulation of long-term alcohol-induced gene expression changes. Here, we review the literature supporting a role for epigenetic processes in AUD...

This chapter explores the current state of the art in eye tracking within 3D virtual environments. It begins with the motivation for eye tracking in Virtual Reality (VR) in psychological research, followed by descriptions of the hardware and software used for presenting virtual environments as well as for tracking eye and head movements in VR. This is followed by a detailed description of an example project on eye and head tracking while observers look at 360° panoramic scenes. The example is illustrated with descriptions of the user interface and program excerpts to show the measurement of eye and head movements in VR...

Brain-imaging studies show that the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is determined by a complex interaction of different neurotransmitter systems and multiple psychological factors. In this context, the dopaminergic reinforcement system appears to be of fundamental importance. We focus on the excitatory and depressant effects of acute versus chronic alcohol intake and its impact on dopaminergic neurotransmission. Furthermore, we describe alterations in dopaminergic neurotransmission as associated with symptoms of alcohol dependence...

BackgroundWomen in many cohorts have a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. Sex is a biological construct whereby differences in disease manifestation and prevalence are rooted in genetic differences between XX and XY combinations of chromosomes. This chapter focuses specifically on sex-driven differences in dementia, as opposed to differences driven by gender - a social construct referring to the societal norms that influence people's roles, relationships, and positional power throughout their lifetime...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a serious public health problem in many countries, bringing a gamut of health risks and impairments to individuals and a great burden to society. Despite the prevalence of a disease model of AUD, the current pharmacopeia does not present reliable treatments for AUD; approved treatments are confined to a narrow spectrum of medications engaging inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurotransmission and possibly excitatory N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, and opioid receptor antagonists...

Relapse to alcohol seeking and drinking is a major clinical challenge in alcohol use disorder and is frequently brought about by cue-induced craving, caused by exposure to cues that evoke alcohol-related memories. It has been postulated that memories become labile for manipulation shortly after their retrieval and then restabilize in a "memory reconsolidation" process. Disruption or interference with the reconsolidation of drug-associated memories has been suggested as a possible strategy to reduce or even prevent cue-induced craving and relapse...

In this chapter, I review studies in nonhuman primates that emulate the circuit failure in prefrontal cortex responsible for working memory and cognitive control deficits in schizophrenia. These studies have characterized how synaptic malfunction, typically induced by blockade of NMDAR, disrupts neural function and computation in prefrontal networks to explain errors in cognitive tasks that are seen in schizophrenia. This work is finding causal relationships between pathogenic events of relevance to schizophrenia at vastly different levels of scale, from synapses, to neurons, local, circuits, distributed networks, computation, and behavior...